RealAge

RealAge
Subsidiary of Hearst Magazines
Genre Media
Founder Michael Roizen
Headquarters San Diego, California, USA
Website www.realage.com

RealAge, Inc. is an American media corporation that provides health information to consumers. The company’s stated mission is to encourage consumers to maximize their health and wellness by making their "RealAge" younger. It was founded by Michael Roizen, currently the chief wellness officer at The Cleveland Clinic. RealAge.com serves as the official online home for both Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, coauthors of the best-selling YOU Book series.[1] On this website, users typically fill out a questionnaire about their health history, which is then used to generate personalized content, including highly targeted advertisements. Most revenue comes from pharmaceutical companies paying to advertise their drugs to individuals who have taken the website test and become members.[2]

RealAge has fueled five New York Times #1 best-selling books, including RealAge: Are You as Young as You Can Be?, which has been promoted by Oprah Winfrey, .

RealAge was owned by Hearst Magazines, which purchased it for an estimated $60 million to $70 million in 2007, when the company had $20 million in revenue. As of 2009, the company was profitable, making its money from pharmaceutical companies for which it compiles test results of RealAge members to whom it sends highly targeted marketing messages by e-mail. It is currently now owned by sharecare[2]

The RealAge Test

The RealAge.com Web site features the patented RealAge Test, reputedly taken by over 27 million people since 1999. The RealAge Test measures what is referred to as the "real age" of the test taker’s body based on a questionnaire pertaining to how well he or she maintains their physical health. The RealAge concept suggests that what they call calendar age reflects a consumer’s age since birth, while their RealAge Test gauges the physiological age of the body and provides the true rate of an individual’s aging.

The RealAge Web site features a large number of supplementary health-risk evaluations that generate sets of proposals for individual users wellness regimes. Clients of the site are given access to advice, articles, blogs, and their RealAge Plan, that are designed to modify and change lifestyle choices and consumer habits.

Books and publications

Roizen, Michael F.; Oz, Mehmet. You on a Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management. Simon & Schuster 2006. ISBN 0-7432-9254-5.

References

  1. "Does RealAge Live up to the Hype?". About.com. Retrieved April 16, 2009.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Clifford, Stephanie (25 March 2009). "Online Age Quiz Is a Window for Drug Makers". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2009.

External links